The planets Mercury,Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn—all visible to the naked eye—were known to ancient peoples. In fact, the Romans gave these planets their names as they are known today. Mercury was named after their god Mercury, the fleet-footed messenger of the gods, because the planet seems especially fast moving when viewed from Earth.Venus was named for the beautiful goddess Venus, brighter than anything in the sky except the Sun and Moon.The planet Mars appears red even from Earth and so was named after Mars, the god of war. Jupiter was named for the king of the gods, the biggest and most powerful of all, and Saturn was named for Jupiter’s father. The ancient Chinese and the ancient Jews recognized the planets as well, and the Maya (250–900 C.E., Mexico and environs) and Aztec (ca. 1100–1700 C.E., Mexico and environs) called the planet Venus “Quetzalcoatl,” after their god of good and light.

These planets, small and sometimes faint in the night sky, commanded such importance that days were named after them. The seven-day week originated in Mesopotamia, which was perhaps the world’s first organized civilization (beginning around 3500 B.C.E. in modern-day Iraq). The Romans adopted the seven-day week almost 4,000 years later, around 321 C.E., and the concept spread throughout western Europe. Though there are centuries of translations between their original names and current names, Sunday is still named for the Sun, Monday for the Moon, Tuesday for Mars, Wednesday for Mercury, Thursday for Jupiter, Friday for Venus, and Saturday for Saturn. The Germanic peoples substituted Germanic equivalents for the names of four of the Roman gods: For Tuesday, Tiw, the god of war, replaced Mars; for Wednesday,Woden, the god of wisdom, replaced Mercury; for Thursday, Thor, the god of thunder, replaced Jupiter; and for Friday, Frigg, the goddess of love, replaced Venus.